Happy Halloween!

Today is Mabel's first Halloween and we are celebrating by ... doing nothing. Actually, that's not entirely true; at her day care they had Farm Day this week and all the kiddos got a pumpkin. Here is Mabel's.
















Also, Mabel has worn a nice assortment of seasonally festive socks this week in anticipation of Halloween: Tuesday she sported the snazzy black cat socks our neighbor Robin gave her, and yesterday it was the orange-and-green jack-o-lantern socks that came from (I think) Tori.
See above - I still can't get the pictures to line up with the words.

Tonight we're going to turn off our porch light and not hand out candy, for the first time ever, because the Nugget goes to bed early and all that knocking and hooting and hollering would likely wake her up, and we don't want that. Unfortunately the room we typically hang out in after she goes to bed is clearly visible from our porch, so we are going to squirrel ourselves away somewhere else in the house. Although I am bummed we won't see all of our neighborhood kiddos in their costumes, Mabel's early bed time is sparing us from eating 54 mini Snickers as we wait for the next round of goblins to appear.

Bouncing Baby Girl

The new love of Mabel's life is the baby-jumper-thingy (I recall my mom calling it a Johnny Jump-Up) that our neighbors John and Maureen passed along to us. (We live in a great neighborhood of people who pass along baby gear and clothes - we are very lucky!) Anyway, Mabel is nuts for this thing and will stay in it and jump around for 15 or 20 minutes at a stretch. She hates to be taken out of it, even when it is plainly obvious that she is tired - one time Dylan had her in it for a while and she just dropped her head to the tray in front because Oh, the fatigue! Sometimes when I have her standing on my lap she'll jump up and down as if she's in the jumpy thing. So, as you can tell, we are all getting great amusement from this new apparatus. Here are some pictures.

One More

I have to share this picture of Mabel - she's wearing a hat that our good friend Tori made for her little girl and then generously passed on to Mabel. This is before we went for a walk on Friday afternoon. The hat is still a little big on Mabel, so occasionally I would look down at her while we were strolling and the hat would've shifted place and be completely covering Mabel's eyes. Which I thought was funny, but she probably did not.

On the Road Again

We've had a great weekend. Everyone is feeling pretty good and I got my flu shot on Friday to ward off any more plague-like illnesses. Yesterday we took Mabel to her first birthday party, next door at our neighbor's, Robin and Rodges. Their little boy, Aidan, was turning three. We have known Aidan since before he was born and we called him The Peanut. He is one of our favorite kiddos. He loves to help Dylan water the plants in the summertime. The rain held off just long enough for the kids to run around in the backyard and hunt for pumpkins. We walked over with Mabel in the snuggli and she was happy as a clam - here she is with Dylan as we headed out.

Today we took a little road trip and headed to Shepherdstown to visit Dylan's folks and his Granny. Mabel snoozed for maybe 20 minutes in the car on the way there and then was wide awake and ready to charm her Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Tom. They were very impressed with how well she holds up her head now and looks all around. This was also the first day Mabel has worn shoes, which of course is a very big day. She seemed a little confused by the shoes, mainly because they hampered her ability to shove her foot in her mouth every seven minutes. (Shoes visible in picture of Mabel and Granny.) She watched a little bit of the Redskins game with Grandma and then we watched the end of the game over at Granny Lib's.

I cannot figure out how to get the pictures to line up with the words ... this technology baffles me sometimes. At any rate, the pictures of the top are from our day in Shepherdstown. Mabel with her dad, Granny and Grandma Sandy. And me.

Coming Around Again

Well, things are slowly returning to normal around here ... after a truly brutal few days of what turned out to be 'the virus that's going around', I finally went back to the office after almost a week out sick. I ended up on steroids for my sore throat, which sounded wacky to me but worked like a charm. Now Dylan has been feeling crummy, but managed to get in a good nap today so we'll see if that helps. Mabel is off her antibiotics and we are crossing everything we have, hoping she doesn't catch our creeping crud. Now I know why you never see people who have new babies - they are either asleep, putting their babies to sleep or at the doctor's office.

Here are some new Mabel pictures.

What A Whirlwind

This has been quite the week! And not in a good way.

It started out promising - Dylan and Mabel visited me at work and we had lunch outside. Mabel was greeted by many, many admirers who heard the telltale sound of baby hiccups wafting down the hallway. Here we are in my office.


Monday was followed by Tuesday, which brought jury duty for me. I am happy to do my civic duty, but does it have to start at 7:30 a.m.? That seems a little much. After sitting in the jury room all day and not getting picked for anything (just like 2nd-grade kickball all over again), I went home and realized I felt a little ... funny. Then I woke up Wednesday morning and had a full-blown ... something. Sore throat, fever, etc. Fast forward to today, and let's just say Mabel's no longer the only Hanna on antibiotics. Good times here on Longfellow Street!

Very Busy Baby

Mabel is very busy, as you can see from these photos. She is really digging being able to sit in the exersaucer and drool on the various gadgets attached to it. Walnut, our youngest (and only female) kitty is also very intrigued by the activity, as you can see. When Mabel's in the saucer it looks to me like she's in her office, working very hard at her little desk. Today Mabel and I went shopping and got her some clothes for the cooler weather, so naturally it's going to be 78 degrees tomorrow. Naturally.

Four Months and Counting

We're just back from Mabel's four-month doctor's appointment and all is well. Except for the sinus infection, but Dr. Snow gave us some antibiotics for that, so hopefully that will clear things right up. She also got four shots but was a total champ. Dylan held her hands and blew on her face (which for some odd reason she likes) while she was getting the shots, and that really seemed to calm her down. I busied myself in the corner with a pamphlet titled Introducing Solid Foods to Your Baby and tried to ignore the crying coming from across the room.

Here are the latest vitals: Mabel weighs 16 pounds and is 25 and 3/4 inches long, up from almost 13 pounds and 24 inches two months ago. This is one growing girl. Here's a picture of Dylan and Mabel waiting in the doctor's office. I took it with my phone, so it's a little blurry.

Working at Home

Today is Friday, which means I am working at home. Dylan and Mabel do their thing and I do mine upstairs, in a little corner of our room where my desk and computer and printer are. I have a great view to my left - see above.

Sometimes I will take a break and Mabel will come up for a visit. This morning she and Dylan were getting ready to do laundry, and they came upstairs to say hi and collect dirty clothes.

TGIAlmostTheEndoftheWeek

Mabel has had a good week, even though we still can't kick this darn cold. Tomorrow is her 4-month appointment at the pediatrician so we'll see if they can give her anything. She's also due to get a load of shots, which should be great. Last time we went I had to hold her down while she got the shots, which I did not enjoy in the slightest. As I write this, we are doing our first try at 'crying it out'. Which explains why Dylan is downstairs and I am up here, with a tumbler I mean glass of wine. Which came from a box. Because we is classy.

Here are some recent snaps of the Nugget. She is getting quite good at putting her foot in her mouth (literally, not figuratively).

Weekend Fun

This has already been quite the weekend, and it's only Saturday. This morning Mabel was up at 6:30 a.m. so after a bottle and some snuggling, we went to the store to get ingredients to make cup cakes. (Tomorrow we are going to our friend Dave's house to hang out with some old NPF co-workers and I volunteered to bring dessert.) Mabel hung out in the kitchen while I baked. Take a look at how much she enjoys baking with her mom.

Then we got ready and headed up to Annapolis to visit our friends Amy and Shawn and their little girl Olivia. Mabel and Olivia go way back, like three months. They were born 4 days apart (Olivia was born first) and Amy and I started at WWF on the same day. While we ate the girls conducted very important business at the kids' table. (see above.)